Vernon skip Erik Colwell (right) watches his rock at the 2019 B.C. Junior Men’s Curling Championships earlier this year at the Vernon Curling Club. Colwell is on Vancouver Island this week, competing at the B.C. U18 Boys championships, and has started 3-0. (Morning Star File Photo)

Vernon skip in hunt at B.C. U18 Curling Finals

Erik Colwell and his teammates from across B.C. have started 3-0 on Vancouver Island

Vernon’s Erik Colwell has started on a roll at the B.C. U18 Boys Curling Championships at the Juan de Fuca Curling Centre in Colwood, near Victoria.

Colwell’s Vernon-Kamloops-Invermere rink of third Mitchell Kopytko, second Ben Morin and lead Tyler Powell have won their first four games, heading into Draws 5 and 6 of the eight-team competition Thursday.

Colwell opened Tuesday with a 6-1, six-end win (games are eight ends) over Bryan Yamada of Kamloops, and a 9-2, six-end decision over Daniel Sammons of Victoria.

The rink improved to 3-0 Wednesday afternoon with a 5-4 win over Connor Kent of Port Moody. Colwell, who lost the 2019 B.C. Junior Men’s Curling Final at the Vernon Curling Club to eventual Canadian and World Champion Tyler Tardi of Langley, led 5-2 after six ends.

In the evening draw, Colwell doubled Alex Duncan-Wu of New Westminster 8-4.

READ ALSO: Big third end key for Tardi in junior final

The Colwell quartet is tied with Hayato Sato of New Westminster atop the standings at 4-0. The two rinks are scheduled to meet in the final preliminary round draw Friday at 1 p.m.

The top three rinks advance to the playoffs with the first-place team getting a bye to the final.

* Vernon’s Doug Smith finished 4-3 and lost a playoff tiebreaker to the eventual champion at the B.C. Master Men’s Curling Championships in Nanaimo.

Smith and his Vernon-Nelson-Trail-Beaver Valley rink of third Brian LeMoel, second Garry Beaudry and lead Bill King, finished tied for third in the eight-team field with Lyle Boyce of Campbell River at 4-3. Both rinks were behind two 6-1 squads, skipped by Wes Craig of Duncan and Vic Shimizu of Richmond/Chilliwack.

Boyce beat Smith 9-2 in the third-place tiebreaker, then knocked off Craig 6-3 and capped off his run to B.C. gold with a 4-3 win over Shimizu in the final. Shimizu beat Craig in the round robin to earn first place and a bye to the championship game.

* Spallumcheen’s Ina Forrest and Team Canada finished out of the playoffs at the World Wheelchair Curling Championships in Stirling, Scotland.

After starting with four straight losses, Forrest was inserted into the Canada lineup and won five straight to get into playoff contention.

But losses to Estonia (8-4) and Scotland (5-3) on the final day of the round-robin eliminated Canada from the championship.